Several Oklahoma Sooner players talk about the Gators and their preparations for the National Championship:
Q. Sam, can you talk about going through what you went through with getting your hand surgery? Did you ever think, oh, I don’t want to get this surgery, just keep doing what I did in Missouri?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, there was a time that I thought maybe surgery wasn’t what I wanted to do, especially with such a big game coming up. After talking to our doctor, everyone around our team, I knew that it was the best decision for me, especially for the future.
Q. You make it out to be like it’s been pretty hassle-free.
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, it’s been a lot better. Right now it feels a lot better than it did going into the Big-12 Championship game.
Q. Do you get the whole thing replaced by the time the game starts, or what you have now, is that what you play with?
SAM BRADFORD: This comes off every day for practice. It’s going to be something similar with probably smaller to what I played with in the Big-12 Championship game.
Q. Have you been in here before? Is this the first time you’ve walked into the stadium?
SAM BRADFORD: This is the first time. It looks pretty nice. It’ll be fun. I’m not sure, is it where they played the 2000 National Championship, at this stadium?
Q. Yeah.
SAM BRADFORD: We’ve seen it on tape a little bit. Ready to get in here and play.
Q. Those are like the biggest Jumbotrons in the world. Is this the first time you’re getting a sense of, wow, this is it?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, actually I think our Jumbotron at home is close to that size. It’s just another game, but it’s a pretty cool stadium.
Q. I’ve never talked to an athlete who hasn’t been superstitious in some way, shape or form. Are you superstitious? And if so, can you tell us a couple of them?
SAM BRADFORD: I have so many superstitions that I probably couldn’t tell you all of that.
Q. What’s your biggest?
SAM BRADFORD: There’s so many. I’ve worn the same socks every game week, and if you saw them, they’re really not like socks anymore, they’re like pieces of thread everywhere. We’re still wearing those this week, though.
Q. Do you wash those?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah.
Q. Anywhere else, maybe on the field or how you get ready for a game, what you eat, what you do in the morning?
SAM BRADFORD: Obviously I eat the same thing, but I read the Bible and read the story of David versus Goliath before every game. That’s one of the big ones.
Q. You don’t see yourself as David this week, do you?
SAM BRADFORD: No.
Q. Can you talk about Coach Stoops?
SAM BRADFORD: Coach Stoops is such a great leader for this team. He brings a lot of energy to practice, and even away from the field he’s such a great—it’s hard to say, but just such a great motivator off the field, even when we’re away from practice. He says things just to get us going, get us back focused on the game, and I don’t think anyone else in the country can probably do the job that he’s done with us.
Q. Can you talk a little bit about the Florida defense?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, obviously the Florida defense is a very good defense. It’s probably one of the best, if not the best defense we’ll face all year. They’re very athletic, they’re very fast. Their front four are great, they push the pocket. We’re going to have to be ready.
Q. What’s the whirlwind been like since winning the Heisman?
SAM BRADFORD: Obviously New York it was kind of like a whirlwind, we just kind of went from place to place. As soon as I got home from New York and got back to Norman and got back to my normal life, nothing has really changed.
Q. Anything about autographs, or anyone hounded you around campus?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, I’d definitely say a couple more people stopped me for autographs.
Q. I know you don’t want this to be the Heisman winner versus the Heisman winner, but you’re both such huge parts of your respective offenses, does one of you have to outplay the other to win the game?
SAM BRADFORD: I don’t think so. I think whichever team is going to win—whichever team plays the best as a whole. It’s not going to come down to one player and who plays better. It’s going to come down to who plays better as a team.
Q. I’m sure you’ve heard the Heisman jinx, the guy who wins doesn’t win the Bowl game. Do you give that any thought?
SAM BRADFORD: No, I don’t think you do give that any thought because I think if you give time to that, then you bring yourself down, and you don’t need to think about negative things. I think I’m just going to prepare like a normal game.
Q. Did you have much time to spend with Tim when you were in New York?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, I got to know him a little bit, and he’s a great guy.
Q. Do you tend to watch the analysts and the commentators break down the game, read the papers, or shy away from all that?
SAM BRADFORD: I stay away from everything.
Q. In your mind what will it take to beat the Gators?
SAM BRADFORD: I think on offense, especially for us, we’re going to have to take care of the football. We’re going to have to convert on 3rd down. We can’t get stopped on three-and-outs and put our defense back on the field without breaks. I think it’s going to be the same thing that we’ve tried to keep our goals on offense throughout the whole year.
Q. Talk about what Juaquin has meant to the team this year.
SAM BRADFORD: He’s been great this year. Obviously going into his senior year he wanted to have a good year, and it really showed in the way he prepared for the season. He worked extremely hard and was a great leader for us in the off-season and it’s really showed in his play this year.
Q. (Inaudible.)
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, I mean, I do have confidence in Juaquin, and I definitely know where he’s at on every play. If something is funky and I’m not sure what’s going on on defense, most of the time I will look to him.
Q. There’s so much talk about Florida’s speed. Is that a question in your mind and the whole team’s mind, that maybe they have another gear, or is that just—what’s your thought on that?
SAM BRADFORD: I mean, obviously we know they’re fast. You can tell that by watching tape. But you can’t get overwhelmed by their speed and worry about that. We’ve still got to prepare and just do what we do.
Q. Are you prepared for the number of Gator fans that are probably going to be here? A, the school is close; and B, you’ve got like a gazillion kids with even family here.
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, we’ve played on the road. It’s not like we’ve played every game in Norman, so we just treat it like a road game.
Q. How do you prepare for the speed of that —
SAM BRADFORD: You just prepare like any other game. I don’t think you can really—it’s hard to simulate in practice, but I think it’s something that you get ready because every team has an extra gear, and it’s going to be faster on game day than there is in practice.
Q. (Inaudible.)
SAM BRADFORD: That’s hard to say. Obviously with both of us winning the Heisman there’s going to be some attention put on that. But I feel like it’s two great teams playing this Thursday. It’s not going to come down to whether me or Tim plays great, it’s going to be which team plays better as a whole.
Q. What’s the mentality of your offense every time you take the field?
SAM BRADFORD: We want to score every time we take the field.
Q. What is the X factor for you guys?
SAM BRADFORD: That’s really hard to say, but I would think that it’s just coming out and doing what we’ve done all year, and not getting walled into thinking that we have to do more than what we’ve done all year.
Q. When you and Tim spent time together in New York, was there any talk of "I’ll see you in a month in Miami"?
SAM BRADFORD: Obviously there was talk about, hey, we’ll be playing against each other in a couple weeks, but it was all friendly and nothing was really competitive at that point.
Q. Was there any money put on the game (laughter)?
SAM BRADFORD: No, not at all.
Q. When Nebraska played Clemson last week, the Nebraska players talked about how they were kind of unprepared for Clemson’s team speed on defense, but they had something eventually to counter that. If you find yourself outmatched against a team speed-wise, are there things in your playbook you can use against a team with a lot of speed? Are you prepared for that situation?
SAM BRADFORD: Yes, I think we do have things in our playbook that are directed towards a team with a lot of speed, and I’m sure our coaches will make the adjustments if we feel their speed is something we need to adjust to.
Q. If they come at you with blitzes do you have the answer to that?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, guys in the secondary will cover our receivers and we’ll take one-on-one match-ups all day.
Q. If they drop back eight are you confident about that situation, too?
SAM BRADFORD: I think we have answers to pretty much everything they’re going to try to throw at you.
Q. Have you talked to anybody who’s been through this, a quarterback who’s been through the championship game, to get any advice or anybody else who’s been through a situation like this?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, I’ve talked to Coach Venables Obviously. He went to New York, he played in the National Championship game, and I talked to Jason White who played in two National Championship games. They’ve given me advice on how to handle this situation.
Q. What did they say?
SAM BRADFORD: I don’t think you need to know that. I don’t think that needs to be out there.
Q. Are you able to enjoy it, though?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, definitely. Coach tells us every game there’s only two teams that play in the National Championship game. I think it’s making the most of it and having the most fun you can with it.
Q. Is there any adjustment to the tempo of it?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, I think when we first started practicing the no huddle it felt like a two-minute drill every time we took the field. It was kind of chaotic and people running around not knowing what they were doing. I think it’s something that we as a team really liked.
Q. What do you think makes the offense tick, is it passing or running?
SAM BRADFORD: I think it’s the offensive line. Those guys have made it from day one. If they play good then we’re going to follow them as an offense.
Q. (Inaudible.) What’s that like to see people running around with your number in Oklahoma?
SAM BRADFORD: It’s pretty cool. You walk around campus sometimes and you see somebody with your jersey on, and that’s something I just had to get used to.
Q. How much fun is this offense?
SAM BRADFORD: I don’t know if I can put that in words. We have so many different weapons and it makes my job so easy. I look behind me and we’ve got playmakers. Playing in this offense, it’s kind of like a quarterback’s dream.
Q. How much work goes into that fun offense?
SAM BRADFORD: A lot of hard work. I think there’s a lot of things that people don’t see that we did in the off-season to get ready for that this year.
Q. How big is the playbook in terms of thickness?
SAM BRADFORD: Depends how you want to look at it. If you want to look at every possible play that we could run it would be pretty thick.
Q. Like six inches?
SAM BRADFORD: I don’t know about that.
Q. Based on what you know about Oklahoma’s last trip to this stadium, how is this Oklahoma team different?
SAM BRADFORD: To be honest, that’s tough for me to say because I wasn’t around when the team in ‘05 came to this stadium. I don’t know how they prepared every week. But I know this team. We’ve been fired up ever since we got here, we’ve had a lot of energy at practice, and to me I haven’t seen a difference in the way we’ve approached this game as we have all other games this year.
Q. There seems to be a conventional wisdom that they have the advantage with team speed. Do you concede that point, or would you debate it? And do you have a few fast guys on your roster?
SAM BRADFORD: Yeah, I mean, obviously they are a very fast team. They have speed all over the field. I think if you look at our team, we’re fairly fast, too. That gets overlooked sometimes. It’s not like we have bad athletes. We have good athletes, too. It’ll be a good match-up, and we’ll see.
Q. On Saturday you said that there were some things that this team has kept (Inaudible.) How has that manifested itself so far this week?
SAM BRADFORD: I don’t think you need to know everything we’ve done different from our last two Bowl games, but there has been a difference in the way we’ve approached this game this week.
JON COOPER
JON COOPER: I really enjoy the no-huddle personally because you kind of get the momentum. Momentum is such a big part of college football, and you don’t have to take that little break, keep going. If you can catch a team off guard a couple times, they don’t have really time to disguise coverages or fronts. So I like to be able to get out there and see what they’re doing before they want us to see.
Q. Do you have any comments from opposing players?
JON COOPER: No, they don’t say much until after the game. They’re trying to catch their breath just like we are.
Q. Is there anything to the fact that there’s two Heisman Trophy winners going against each other in this game?
JON COOPER: No, that’s not it at all. We know both of them are great players. I don’t think it’s a competition between them two as much as it is between two football teams.
Q. They’re both such dynamic parts of their offense, though.
JON COOPER: Yeah, I think one of them will have to play the best to win this football game. That’s the case in any game. Sam is a big part of our offense and Tim Tebow is a huge part of their offense.
Q. What was summer like for you as far as getting ready?
JON COOPER: With Coach Smitty, summer is always a beast. He gets the most out of us every day, absolutely.
Q. Did you lose a lot of weight?
JON COOPER: No, I’m trying to put on weight. I’m not like these other guys trying to lose. I’m trying to put on weight.
Q. What are you now?
JON COOPER: About 285.
Q. What were you last year?
JON COOPER: About 280.
Q. So the other guys talk about the weight schedule, that’s not you?
JON COOPER: No, they’ve been trying to get me up, put weight on me since I got here.
I get a lot of grief because I enjoy running. Other offensive linemen don’t really like it, but I like it. I tell them to come afterwards and do a couple extra sprints with me, and they look at me like I’m crazy.
Q. Do you get the sense when defenses are starting to wear down from your offense?
JON COOPER: When we start to get tired we see it in them, too, and we like to try to take advantage of it because we get the up tempo going and take charge.
Q. (Inaudible.)
JON COOPER: Absolutely, a 12-to-15-play drive you’re struggling to walk back, and you know Coach Wilson wants up-tempo play. So you’ve got to get to that line and get ready so you can be successful.
Q. What teams have handled it the best?
JON COOPER: I’m not real sure because sometimes we use our tempo more in different games, so it’s really tough to tell.
Q. When you look at Florida’s personnel what stands out to you?
JON COOPER: Their speed, absolutely, like everybody sees. Their front seven is very fast and they’re very active and make a lot of plays.
Q. Comparable to anyone you’ve faced?
JON COOPER: You know, they’re a lot different. They’re very unique in their ways. I wouldn’t compare them to anybody.
Q. What do you think about all the media attention?
JON COOPER: It’s a circus, man, a complete zoo. I like it because of the situation we’re in and it’s fun. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Q. (Inaudible.)
JON COOPER: Absolutely not, they can have it. They can keep that.
GERALD McCOY
GERALD McCOY: I guess he was going out for some kind of pass last year and ran into a hole or something like that, kind of like the guy from Houston, something similar to that.
Q. How important is it that you’re a defensive guy—how important is it to have a scout team quarterback that every week is going to give you a reasonable idea of what you’ll face?
GERALD McCOY: It’s always good because you can practice on what you can do to get this guy to the ground, keep this guy in the pocket, you know, just keep him contained. You need a guy who can do that. He does a great job for us, and he does it week in and week out.
Q. There’s this big myth that you guys don’t play defense, and now I’ve talked to all the Florida players, and they say, hey, from what we see those guys play defense. Why is it do you think that everybody has this misconception that just because you guys put 60 points on everybody, why is it everybody thinks you guys can’t play defense really?
GERALD McCOY: Well, we’re not worried about what everybody says. You’ve got to be good on offense and defense to win a championship.
Q. Playing defense then is not a bad thing at Oklahoma?
GERALD McCOY: No, I mean, defense is what we play.
Q. Tell me about Brent Venables. He’s a guy that got dropped on his head as a baby.
GERALD McCOY: I don’t know about that. He’s a fire bomb. He just loves the game, and he’s a great coach and does a great job.
Q. He’s a great motivator?
GERALD McCOY: Yeah, he’ll motivate you.
NIC HARRIS
Q. Talk about the injuries you’ve had this year, especially at middle linebacker. I understand you volunteered to play the position when things were getting tough.
NIC HARRIS: If Coach needs me to go in the water and breathe for 30 minutes or not breathe for 30 minutes to win the National Championship game, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m pretty much one of those guys that is a leader on the team and the captain on the team and the singer on the team. Lead by example, that’s my whole mentality, to do whatever it is I need to do to get to a National Championship game.
Q. Talk a little bit about Tim Tebow and what you see on film from him and what impressions you have.
NIC HARRIS: He’s a great guy. He’s a great quarterback. He had the Heisman last year. But he’s still a quarterback, and he does his job. That’s his job, to sit back there and make plays. What we’ve got to do is make sure we make more plays than they do.
Q. Why didn’t you go to LSU, what happened?
NIC HARRIS: Ask them (laughter).
Q. All you guys sound like a little annoyed because everybody is talking about —
NIC HARRIS: I’m not annoyed, I’m enjoying the sun. I want to be on the beach.
Q. You’ve obviously thought about this for a while, being in this position since childhood. Is the experience the way you thought it would be?
NIC HARRIS: I wouldn’t change it at all. I mean, if I could go back and change it, I wouldn’t. I couldn’t ask for a better scenario, better circumstances – senior year, National Championship game. But only thing I can do is do my best right now, and that to give 100 percent, every day, every inch, every yard, every play.
Q. Does it bother you—obviously it’s not you guys that lost the BCS Championship before, it was another team, but people —
NIC HARRIS: Coach, he’s tough skinned. People say he’s from Ohio. I don’t know what type of skin they have up there, but he has tough skin. Ultimately whatever happens with the team is not necessarily a reflection of Coach Stoops but the whole state, the community of Norman. You can’t sit there and say that it’s one guy. A lot of things happen throughout the course of each and every day. The only people that can control it are the 22 that’s out there.
Q. (Inaudible.)
NIC HARRIS: Honestly, me personally, I’m going to probably be on the beach asleep. You’ve got to enjoy it.
Q. Did LSU recruit you?
NIC HARRIS: I was recruited but I didn’t know with the job security who was going to come in. You’ve got to make a solidified decision.
Q. Did you grow up like hoping to play at LSU?
NIC HARRIS: Actually I grew up hoping to play at Florida State.
Q. What happened?
NIC HARRIS: I didn’t like it whenever I got recruited. I made a great decision.
Q. When you were growing up who were some players that you looked up to, their style of play?
NIC HARRIS: I mean, growing up you always look at Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, those type of guys or whatever, the guys you see day in and day out making plays, giving their all on every game.
Q. There are different ways to play defensive back, some are very aggressive (Inaudible.) Were there certain people that you sort of saw that they were aggressive and that’s how you decided how to play?
NIC HARRIS: Not necessarily aggressive, not necessarily being a finesse player, just the people that made plays on every given day. I felt one thing that intrigued me a lot was Deion, how he played baseball, as well, one of those things, diversity, being put in different positions and asked to play.
Q. (Question regarding which player fits in best on South Beach.)
NIC HARRIS: I’ve got the look.
Q. You feel pretty at home here in Miami?
NIC HARRIS: It’s pretty good. I could get used to it.
Q. We’re here every day, we’ve got to come up with new questions for Bob. Put yourself in position for media day; you have to ask Coach Stoops a question.
NIC HARRIS: I’m here playing the game. I’m not going to get a question out there.
Q. You’re not going to ask him about the Broncos job?
NIC HARRIS: What Broncos job?
Q. Which one of your teammates besides yourself fits in best here in Miami?
NIC HARRIS: Nic, and No. 5, two different people.
Q. On a serious note, this game is really about turnovers because neither team turns it over, the fewest in the country, 9 and 11 respectively. Does that give you the mindset that, hey, if we can create one that may make all the difference?
NIC HARRIS: We all know about the unheralded, the great, great offenses on the field, and it’s going to be whichever defense makes the most plays.
Q. Their receivers because the defense is so good doesn’t get enough credit —
NIC HARRIS: They get a lot of credit. They do their job.
Q. Having Percy back, what a difference maker is he?
NIC HARRIS: He’s pretty much the vice president of that team. Tebow is president. You’ve got to cut the head off the snake. Tebow, you’ve got to make him one dimensional, run first, pass second, whatever, but you make him one dimensional, don’t allow him to get comfortable and just make plays day in and day out and all night, hopefully we’ll be celebrating.
Q. You’ve got the iPod. What are the chances Will Smith’s "Miami" is on this iPod?
NIC HARRIS: 100 percent, I’m positive.
TRAVIS LEWIS
Q. Nimmo tells me, he says if there’s one thing he would like to do every single day it’s avoid you hitting him. What do you think about that?
TRAVIS LEWIS: He’s smart (laughter). No, I’m just kidding. He’s mocked Tebow as well as you can mock a player at quarterback like that. He’s been great, and he’s really given us a good look.
Q. He said the worst part about being Tebow is you’re hitting him about ten times a day from practice and you hit like a freight train.
TRAVIS LEWIS: Tell him I appreciate that. I’m just trying to prepare for this game because we’re going to have to hit No. 15 a whole lot.
Q. How much do you weigh now?
TRAVIS LEWIS: 235.
Q. So you and Tebow are basically a stand-off weight-wise.
TRAVIS LEWIS: I guarantee you I’m going to bring that hammer, though. It should be a good match-up.
Q. He kind of brings a hammer, too, so what happens when two hammers hit?
TRAVIS LEWIS: I mean, what happens when an unmovable force meets an unstoppable object? You’re going to see a whole lot.
Q. This sounds like fun.
TRAVIS LEWIS: It’s going to be a whole lot of fun.
Q. I asked Nic who fits in best here in Miami, which one of your teammates. Nic says it’s himself.
TRAVIS LEWIS: (Laughing) Nic will fit in almost everywhere you go. This guy right here fits in pretty good.
Q. What is it that Nimmo does? I know one week he gets to be Graham Harrell, the next week he gets to be Chase Daniel and the next week he gets to be Colt McCoy. What does he have that makes him a good scout team quarterback that he’s able to imitate these guys and get you guys prepared?
TRAVIS LEWIS: A lot of guys may be down that they’re not going to be playing on that big stage, but he embraces his role on the team. He knows every person on this team matters. He gets the role of being the best player on the field every week. He’s embraced the role. He’s studying their film just to give us a better look. I mean, it’s good to have a player like that, that driven and that wanting to help the team out.
Q. He says that he’ll be happy when the season is over because you’ll stop calling him Graham or Colt or Tebow and start calling him by his name.
TRAVIS LEWIS: Yeah, I don’t know what to say about that, but it’s good for him.
Q. All the shuffling at linebacker, I’m sure it would be your preference to have everybody healthy, but has it kind of broadened your perspective?
TRAVIS LEWIS: It’s made me mature as a player, not having to worry about anything, because I know No. 8 is going to get it all done, having to make all the calls and at this point having to line people up and everything like that. It’s really made me mature faster because I don’t think I would have been that type of player for who knows how long if I would have had him my whole career.
Q. We’ve got to come up with new questions for Coach Stoops every day. Put yourself in our shoes. What would you ask Coach Stoops on media day?
TRAVIS LEWIS: What would I ask Coach Stoops? How he feels about No. 28 at linebacker—I’m just kidding. I don’t know.
He’s probably been asked every question in the world. I don’t think you could surprise the guy.
Q. Other than Nic, which one of your teammates is the most at home in south beach?
TRAVIS LEWIS: I’m thinking Big Phil because Big Phil loves to be everywhere. He’s one of the happiest guys in the world and he thinks he owns every city he’s in, and he pretty much does because he’s the biggest guy and people love him.
Q. Will Smith’s "Miami", is it on your iPod?
TRAVIS LEWIS: I don’t think so.
Q. Hoping to get a little love from maybe any ‘Canes fans and Seminoles fans that have got tickets?
TRAVIS LEWIS: Whatever people we’ve got screaming at the game for OU, they’re a fan of mine.
Q. Gators, this is their home stadium, kind of feel like a road game?
TRAVIS LEWIS: We’re wearing our dark jerseys, so it’s a home game for us. It should be a great game.
Q. We see Tebow running over linebackers sometimes. Are you looking forward to that collision, knocking him down?
TRAVIS LEWIS: I don’t start playing until I get hit, so hopefully he can be the first one to do that, and it will be a collision, I guarantee you that.
Q. Who’s going backwards?
TRAVIS LEWIS: I haven’t lost a battle yet, so we’ll see.
Q. All the stereotypes this season, it seems like the SEC speed. Do you feel you can catch up to those Gators?
TRAVIS LEWIS: I feel we’re fast and we can compete in any conference and any team in the nation.
Q. How’s Florida treating you?
TRAVIS LEWIS: Great. I don’t know if I could live here, but I definitely could vacation here. It’s a little too complicated for me, but it’s a great place to be for a week.
Q. Can you talk about your decision to come back quickly and keep playing?
TRAVIS LEWIS: I felt like I wanted to be here for my season. I couldn’t let them down. Whatever I was going through, I didn’t want to let them down.
Q. Have you become even closer with them over the last month or so?
TRAVIS LEWIS: Yeah, they’ve helped me through—even at the start of the season, they’ve always kept me afloat, always kept me in the right direction. They’ve been good to me.
Q. Certain people that you’ve come to lean on?
TRAVIS LEWIS: Linebackers, Clayton, Ryan Reynolds, Austin Box, those guys have been my closest friends. I mean, you’re around them all the time, whether it’s in the film room or on the field or just hanging out outside of school, these are the guys you’re around the most. Those are the guys that bleed for you, sweat for you, and just are there for you all the time.
So I guess it’s just become natural those are the guys that I lean on.